- Museum number
- 1868,0808.12619
- Title
- Object: Battle royal, or which has it.
- Description
-
Plate from the 'Scourge', i, before p. 175. The Ministry defend 'The Citadel of Office' behind a high stone wall against different Opposition groups. The chief defence is by the tiny Perceval who fires a cannon from whose muzzle issue three heads intended for Wellesley, Ryder, and Melville. In the centre the wall is breached, and Eldon looks from the gap, weeping; behind him is the Woolsack, inscribed 'Wool'. Lord Grey, on tiptoe, reaches up to seize his gown, while he flourishes a paper: 'Report of Physicians 1804'. Erskine, quite bald and with his (former) Chancellor's gown over his arm, reaches up to tug at the Chancellor's wig. Seated on the wall at the lowest point of the breach is Yorke in back view; in his pocket is a 'List of my Friends Cambridge' [see No. 11535]. He hands down a large seal bearing an anchor to Whitbread who straddles a cask floating in water which adjoins the 'Citadel' on the right. Whitbread takes this emblem of the Admiralty, flourishing a tankard (cf. No. 10414). On the left of the breach Sir Vicary Gibbs, brandishing a rolled document inscribed 'Law of Libel', defends himself vigorously against Romilly, who drags at his gown and has a similar weapon inscribed 'New Statutes'. In Romilly's pocket is a paper: 'New Bankrupt Laws'. Farther to the left the three Grenvilles, Lord Temple, the Marquis of Buckingham, and Lord Grenville, level a battering-ram against the wall. The ram has a ram's head, as in heraldry, but with a human face, and is intended for Ponsonby, leader of the Opposition in the Commons. On one horn is spiked a paper: 'Catholic Emancipation'. Between them and Romilly, little Lord Lansdowne (Petty) sits on the ground squirting a large syringe over his shoulder at the wall. Next the ram Moira, stiff and aloof, holds up a fox with the head of Lord Holland (nephew and political heir of Fox), whose fore-paws, holding a paper of 'Resolutions', have reached the top of the wall but are caught in a trap. On the extreme left. Tierney bestrides a wooden horse whose hind-legs are broken off; it is inscribed 'Finance'. A bundle inscribed 'New Budget for 1811' is strapped to his back; he fires a pistol inscribed 'Bullion Report', but he is about to be thrown, so that the pistol points backwards over his head. Between Tierney and the wall are Burdett and Wardle. The former is flinging mud at the defenders, at Moira, and at Tierney. As in No. 11711 Wardle holds out a close-stool.
A corner of the 'Citadel' is on the right, where Perceval stands putting a match to the touch-hole of the gun. On the extreme right is a short length of side-wall in deep shadow with an archway inscribed 'Private Door to Treasury'. Towards this, Sidmouth, standing in the stern, propels a small boat, whose tiller is held by Canning. A clyster-pipe (cf. No. 9849) hangs from the former's pocket; the latter is further identified by a paper: 'The Pilot that Weathered the Storm' [cf. No. 9865]. Castlereagh leans over the side with a gesture of dismissal to a man in the water, who clutches the gunwale, anxious to be admitted. There are three other shadowy figures in the boat, whose occupants intend either to join the garrison or attack from the rear. A heavy pall of smoke hangs over the 'Citadel'; in this flies (left to right) a serpentine body inscribed 'Crackers', spurting fire from many points; it has the head of Sheridan, blowing fire against the defenders.
1 March 1811
Hand-coloured etching and aquatint
- Production date
- 1811
- Dimensions
-
Height: 219 millimetres
-
Width: 371 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
A satire on the hopes of the Opposition that the Prince would dismiss the Perceval Ministry on the establishment of the Regency, see No. 11705, &c. The print was out of date: at the beginning of February the Regent had declared his intention of retaining his Ministers, see No. 11709. It is fairly well informed on the divisions in the Opposition and their recent Cabinet-making. Lord Grey, in a debate on the Regency Bill on 28 Jan., violently attacked Eldon for putting the Great Seal to a Commission for giving the royal assent to Bills in 1804, while the King was incapacitated. 'Parl. Debates', xviii. 1051, cf. No. 11716. Erskine was the obvious Opposition candidate for the Chancellorship. Yorke's believed readiness to resign the Admiralty is expressed in his attitude; he did resign in Jan. 1812, but not from sympathy with Opposition; Whitbread, despite his pacifism, had been suggested for the place. 'H.M.C., Dropmore Papers', x. 98. Romilly had been at first intended to succeed Gibbs as Attorney-General; his important Bill to amend the Bankruptcy Laws was passed in 1809 (49 Geo. III, c. 121). Holland, see No. 11710, and Moira were among the peers who opposed the resolutions moved by Perceval on 27 Jan. for the establishment of a regency under restrictions, see No. 11706. The Opposition, and especially the Grenvilles, stood for Emancipation, cf. No. 10709. The Burdettites are only indirectly concerned in the assault: Wardle merely collects unsavoury scandals, cf. No. 11219; Burdett slings more mud at the Opposition than at the defenders of the 'Citadel'. Tierney was prospective Chancellor of the Exchequer in a Whig Ministry; he had taken a prominent part in the Bullion Committee, see No. 11576; his ineffective pistol anticipates the rejection of its findings in May. Canning, Castlereagh, and Sidmouth were potential adherents of either Perceval or the Whigs, but their mutual antipathies were great. Canning had voted against the Government on the Regency question; his defence of Pitt on 2 Jan. 1811 is probably indicated by the allusion to his poem. 'Parl. Debates', xviii. 665-70. Sheridan is correctly represented as aloof from the Opposition groups and emitting fireworks. M. Roberts, 'The Whig Party, 1807-1812', 1939, pp. 363-5. The substitution of Melville for Liverpool (the third Secretary of State) is odd.
An original pencil sketch for the greater part of this design is in the Print Room (1872,1012.5094). The upper part, with Sheridan, and Perceval and his gun, is omitted, as is the boat. The wall is absent, and there is a study on a larger scale of Burdett's head and shoulders. The heads are better characterized than in the engraving.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated names
-
Associated with: George Nugent Temple Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham
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Associated with: Richard Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
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Associated with: Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet
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Associated with: George Canning
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Associated with: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh and 2nd Marquess of Londonderry
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Associated with: John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon
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Associated with: Right Hon Sir Vicary Gibbs
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Associated with: William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville
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Associated with: Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
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Associated with: Henry Richard Fox Vassall, 3rd Baron Holland
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Associated with: Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne
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Associated with: Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville
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Associated with: Right Hon Spencer Perceval
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Associated with: William Pitt the Younger
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Associated with: George Ponsonby
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Associated with: Sir Samuel Romilly
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Associated with: The Hon. Richard Ryder
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Associated with: Richard Brinsley Sheridan
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Associated with: Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth
-
Associated with: George Tierney
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Associated with: Col Gwyllym Lloyd Wardle
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Associated with: Richard Colley Wellesley, Marquess Wellesley
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Associated with: Samuel Whitbread II
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Associated with: Charles Philip Yorke
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Associated with: Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.12619
